LAST SATURDAY the anti-man-about-town jet-setted down to SoCal because the only Bay Area team competing in the Red Bull Flugtag at Long Beach was a handful of San Jose characters from Jack’s Bar on Taylor Street.
German for “flying day,” Flugtag is that ridiculous-on-purpose competition challenging lunatics of all sorts to build human-powered flying machines and pilot them off a 30-foot high pier. Many of the contraptions just dive-bomb and crash into the water, which is sort of expected, but a few wind up taking flight for about 50–90 feet or so. It is one helluva charade.
Flugtag debuted in 1991 in Vienna, Austria—home of Red Bull. The first flugtag in the United States was in San Francisco in 2002, and this year the circus hit Miami, Minneapolis–St. Paul and Long Beach—and then heads to Philly over Labor Day weekend.
Calling themselves the Flying Rocks, the San Jose team—Travis Walter, Larry Hoang, Matt Turney, Jordan Trigg and Charlie Mann—made the 36-team cut out of 300 who entered. They “designed” a papier-mâché boulder-looking contraption on a makeshift frame with four bicycle tires. Two spinning circular appendages provided, well, something.
According to a few team members, it took five rolls of duct tape to assemble the contraption plus 60 feet of chicken wire, a few packages of twist-ties and 127 issues of Metro for the papier-mâché. Faber’s Cyclery helped out by donating tires, rims and PVC tubing. In that sense, it was a truly “San Jose” collaboration. Actually, the jerry-rigged craft looked more suited for Flugtag Alviso than Flugtag Long Beach, but I give ’em credit for trying.
As they towed it down the freeway to SoCal, the whole thing broke into pieces. They attempted to repair it on the road, and by the time they arrived—about 1:30pm Friday—the craft was destroyed. But they redid the papier-mâché and somehow got the contraption working again.
The Flugtag event itself is an absolute circus. One by one, each team rolls its contraption down the length of the pier in order to build up speed. When the team gets to the end of the pier, off the machine goes, with one person actually “piloting” it.
Each crew dresses up in homemade costumes to fit whatever theme suits its project and does its own choreographed dance out on the flight deck for all to see. Then they launch their contraption into the water. The teams are judged on distance, creativity of craft and showmanship.
Most teams also brought an equivalent “street team” to pass out T-shirts and solicit votes for the People’s Choice Award. The Flying Rocks dressed up like cavemen and dragged about 50 folks from San Jose with them. During the lead-up to the event, each team displayed its respective machine in the street, and numerous passers-by stopped to have their photos taken, especially with the Flying Rocks. The caveman costumes were a big hit, wowing the SoCal crowd.
The takeoff pier protruded straight into Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach, surrounded by Parker’s Lighthouse, Shoreline Aquatic Park, the shops and restaurants of Shoreline Village, the Queen Mary, the marina and dozens of boats. The setting drew an announced crowd of 105,000. People even parked on the 710 Freeway, essentially closing down the exit ramp to Long Beach. Celebrity judges included Cheech Marin and Tenley Molzahn from The Bachelor Pad.
In the end, the San Jose contraption went straight down into the water and didn’t fly more than a few feet. But all agreed the entire process was worth it. Someone had to represent NorCal in this whole mess.
“It was great to great to represent San Jose and the Bay Area and Jack’s Bar,” Trigg said later that evening, as the crew partied in the rooftop pool at the Avia Hotel. “We had a wreck with the craft and everyone came out and helped us fix it. I felt like Mickey Mouse today, with all the pictures people took next to us. We had way too much fun.”
